Carolina Shore - Ocean, Seafood, History & More!

[scifan57]

I hope there won't be many more deaths. This disaster will cost billions and take years to rebuild.

 

[giradman]

I hope there won't be many more deaths. This disaster will cost billions and take years to rebuild.

Well, the current estimate seems to be hovering around $170,000,000,000 as shown below (LINK) potentially making Florence the most costly hurricane in US history - hard to believe that this may top Katrina - that estimate was several days ago, so could be even more w/ the way this new storm is stalling on the coast?

But this disaster has really impacted on the most historic part of North Carolina - the eastern part of the state is still recovering from Matthew's flooding in 2016, so this will indeed be a LONG term recovery. I've been watching the weather channel for the last 4 days and this morning the mayor and a team went onto Wrightsville Beach to assess the damage - seems like the main impact was on the ocean beaches - they saw just one tree down on a house and all the telephone/electric poles were still standing - amazing! We may follow the progress and possibly visit in late October or early November to put some money into the community. Dave
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[scifan57]

Here is some live coverage of the hurricane. Florence pours on the rain in the Carolinas, swelling rivers

 

[giradman]

Hi Scifan.. - thanks for the link - I've been on the Weather Channel as mentioned since the start of this storm - always enjoy their coverage w/ meteorologists being blown around and rained on - plenty of live footage of the many towns affected - in fact, I recognize many of their locales having been there. Dave

 

[giradman]

Return to Wrightsville Beach - December 3, 2018: Post-Hurricane Florence

Susan & I usually visit Wrightsville Beach in late September into early November, but Hurricane Florence made landfall in the area on September 14 with devastating winds and record rainfall, even closing several of the major interstate highways (see quote below + link and my previous post). Well, we decided to return after Thanksgiving to see our annual beach retreat, eat at some favorite restaurants, and instill some money into the local economy.

Much to our relief, Wrightsville Beach suffered little damage - beach erosion was a major problem but the sandy beach at our hotel looks fine (see pics) - of course, beach restoration was done. The daily high temperatures this time of year can be variable from our previous experiences - this week the highs will be in the 50s Fº, a little chillier than expected but we're prepared - will walk the beach, do some in-door activities, and eat well!

Last night, we ate at one of our favorite places, the Boca Bay Seafood Restaurant - as usual, we shared a dozen mixed raw oysters (6 Bluepoints & 6 Lea Islands) - the latter were new to us but harvested just north of Wilmington on Lea Island (south and adjacent to Topsail Island) - this is an uninhabited Audubon Sanctuary (see second quote + link) - oyster aquaculture (a previous post of mine in this thread) is highly regulated and these likely came from the wetlands shown in one of the pics below of the island. Susan had the daily seafood special which were clams in a risotto - the clams were harvested locally that day and delicious; I had some NC shrimp + sushi, an alternative option at that eatery.

We'll probably go to the fitness room shortly, then have a light lunch at the hotel, and onto an afternoon activity or two - Dave

Where did Hurricane Florence make landfall?
Hurricane Florence made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane the morning of Friday, Sept. 14 over Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, a few miles east of Wilmington and not far from the South Carolina border. The hurricane came ashore with 90-mph winds and punishing storm surge. (Source)

Located north of Wilmington, between Figure Eight Island and Topsail Island, Lea-Hutaff Island is a 5,641-acre undeveloped barrier island and marsh system that has remained undisturbed by development, dredged sand and off-road vehicles. Two islands (Lea and Hutaff) joined to form this system following the closure of Old Topsail Inlet in 1998. The island is characterized by large, open expanses of bare sand caused by over-wash during hurricanes in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Remnants of primary dunes exist in a few locations along the island. One of North Carolina's few pristine barrier islands, Lea-Hutaff is an important sanctuary for wildlife, and a peaceful recreation area for people. (Source)

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[scifan57]

Thanks for another excellent travel post. Your room has an excellent view.

 

[giradman]

Thanks for another excellent travel post. Your room has an excellent view.

Hi Scifan.. - thanks again - view is indeed beautiful and temps today hit 60 ºF, so a light jacket was just fine. Our afternoon outing included a drive around Wrightsville Beach (not a large island) and was again surprised at the lack of damage (not sure about lower level flooding?) - saw just a few houses w/ minor damage, several around Johnnie Mercer's Pier which suffered no harm except for beach erosion, probably already restored (pic below from an late afternoon walk on the beach).

However, several restaurants were not opened and are under restoration, i.e. South Beach Grill and the Oceanic Restaurant (pics of the latter below) - the wood pier seems to be still standing but likely damaged - I'm sure both will be back in business soon! Overall, I'm amazed that the island is in such good shape. Dave
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[giradman]

Latimer House - Another Gem in the Wilmington Historic District

The Wilmington National Historic District is large and contains many ante-bellum (i.e. pre-Civil War) structures, including house, churches, and public buildings. A number of the houses are open for tours - in previous pages of this thread, I've posted more details on the historic district and the Bellamy Mansion (see pg. 10, if interested); also, comments/pics on the Burgwin-Wright House, the only Revolutionary house open to the public and a recent visit (see pg. 13). Yesterday, we took a tour (our first) of the Latimer House - see quotes below from the link.

The Latimer House is located on the now busy 3rd Street and Orange (a country road in the late 19th century) - the house the built in 1852 in the Italianate Revival style and has been well preserved (see the few pics below) - many more details in the quotes below. The tour includes 3 floors, the basement, the gardens, and the restored 'excellent' slave quarters (see second quote for more history). Zebulon and Elizabeth Savage Latimer had 9 children with just 4 boys living to adulthood (third quote); when the house was passed onto the sons, one bought out the others who in return built 2 similar adjacent houses (see pic below); in fact, there were 5 adjacent houses along 3rd Street representing the extended Latimer-Savage family, as evident by the plaques; one is now a beautiful looking Bed & Breakfast Inn. Finally, William Latimer built a railroad (replaced by a trolley) to Wrightsville Beach beginning its fame as a tourist destination. Dave

The house was built by merchant Zebulon Latimer (1810 – 1881) and his wife, Elizabeth Savage Latimer (1819 – 1904) in 1852 during Wilmington’s antebellum housing boom. Zebulon Latimer exemplified the individuals who made Wilmington the largest city in the state of North Carolina during the antebellum era: his wealth is attributed to the harvesting of southeastern North Carolina’s naval stores and the ability to retail the naval stores to a global market. Thus, beyond his wharf and merchant store along Wilmington’s waterfront, Zebulon Latimer invested in dredging the Cape Fear River, various railroads, canals, and turnpikes. This wealth cumulated in the construction of the Latimer House by masons J.C. and R.B. Wood on the corner of Third and Orange Streets, high on a bluff overlooking the Cape Fear River. The Italianate Revival House emulated the villas from antiquities.

April, 1848, is the first documented purchase by Zebulon Latimer of an enslaved African American, and by 1860, eleven enslaved persons worked and lived at the Latimer House. These enslaved African Americans accessed the house via a spiral staircase in a concealed, back room of the house, tending to the desires of the Latimer family and maintaining the home. Some were cooks, others were coachmen, and still others were leased out by Zebulon Latimer to other households or businesses. Most resided in a small brick slave quarters built in the gardens rear of the Latimer House. Many were baptized and confirmed members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, founded in 1858 as an integrated, free-pew Episcopal Church just one block east of the Latimer House. An overwhelming majority of the enslaved people chose to leave the Latimer family following emancipation, yet the freedmen remained in contact with the Latimer family, writing letters to their former masters as late as 1874. The final servant serving the Latimer family and residing in the quarters was documented in the 1930 census.

In sixteen years, Elizabeth Savage Latimer gave birth to nine children, yet only four boys survived to adulthood. Henry Gould Latimer (1845 – 1929) was trained as an artist, painting many admired works on display at the Latimer House today. The second eldest son, William Latimer (1852 – 1923) attended Columbia University and practiced law. In 1888, William Latimer served as president of Wilmington and Seacoast Railroad, which took passengers from downtown Wilmington to Harbor Island near modern-day Wrightsville Beach. This railroad served as a precursor to the electric trolley lines that transported thousands of visitors to Wrightsville Beach. William Latimer and his younger brother Edward Savage Latimer (1857 – 1901) established Acme Fibre Company, which produced pine fibre bagging and matting. The youngest son was named Hebert Russell Latimer (1861 – 1887), who unfortunately succumbed to tuberculosis at the young age of twenty-eight, but not before fathering two children, Hebert Russell Latimer, Jr. (1885 – 1966) and Empie Latimer (1886 – 1948). These Latimer grandchildren were raised in Europe following their father’s death and both graduated from Princeton University

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[scifan57]

It's nice to see that these historic buildings survived the recent hurricane and are still open for the entertainment and education of their visitors.

 

[giradman]

It's nice to see that these historic buildings survived the recent hurricane and are still open for the entertainment and education of their visitors.

After our visit to the Latimer House, I drove down to the Cape Fear River (Front and Water Streets) - again cannot talk about flooding during Hurricane Florence but virtually all looked intact - a couple of streets were blocked off for construction which I assume may have related to flooding? We went shopping at the famous Cotton Exchange which seemed 'untouched' by the storm.

The historic Wilmington district covers hundreds of blocks with many structures intact and restored - most are private residencies but the ones open to the public are indeed gems to explore. More on the Latimer House - the inside was beautifully done and brought back to its Victorian appearance - the basement had two kitchens (some pics below w/ the original cooking area, sink and table); the second kitchen was converted into a useable room for meetings, kid's birthdays, etc. Different events occur often, including weddings, historic reenactments, and even seances. The restored slave quarters is worth seeing w/ a lot of interesting history presented - the building (shown in the last pic below) is now rented out as small apartments. Dave
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[giradman]

Shuckin' Shack & Cameron Art Museum - our Wednesday Afternoon Outing

About noon, we headed south toward Ft. Fisher (previous posts in this thread) to Carolina Beach for a light lunch which started with Harkers Island oysters, another North Carolina location near Morehead City and Beaufort (also discussed previously here) - from Harkers Island swift boats can be taken to the Cape Lookout National Seashore (only reachable by water) and the beautiful lighthouse w/ the diamond black-white design - we made the trip a number of years ago - highly recommended!

After lunch a return to the Cameron Art Museum for two new and quite different exhibits: 1) Along the Eastern Sea Road: Hiroshige’s Fifth-three Stations of the Tōkaidō; and 2) Recovery in Flight: The Sculptures of Grainger McKoy - these were just wonderful, so I'll devote the next two posts to a discussion of each, along w/ some appropriate pics from the web. Dave
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[giradman]

Grainger McKoy is a Carolina artist whose primary interest is the sculpting of birds, especially from their dynamics - he carves out of wood but incorporates metals and paints to produce wonderful bird animations - a short bio quoted below, plus check his website in the first link above. He has expanded into other areas, such as jewelry for both women and men. The current exhibit at the Cameron Art Museum was impressive - I particularly love the Carolina Parakeet multi-bird work, a beautiful species now extinct - I own a print copy of the original Audubon drawing (a print was part of the current exhibit). For those nearby Wilmington, this is an exhibit not to be missed (which is also part of the next post on famous Japanese woodcuts); the pics below are a mixture from various web sites, some of which are in the exhibit. Dave

Grainger McKoy (born in 1947) is an artist who draws inspiration from the dynamics of bird behavior. He is best known for his wood sculptures but also produces jewelry and gifts. Victor Grainger McKoy was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1947. McKoy carved his first bird out of wood - a shorebird from cypress wood. He is a graduate in the class of 1965 of Edmunds High School, Sumter, S. C. In 1965, he attended Clemson University in South Carolina and pursued a bachelor's degree in architecture, which turned into a zoology degree. After college, he took an apprenticeship under the bird carver Gilbert Maggioni. Once McKoy learned how to mold bronze and gold, he expanded his repertoire into steel, bronze, sterling silver, gold, and platinum. for these, he first carves into wood and then uses a lost-wax cast to produce metal pieces. He subsequently began creating smaller sculptures and casting them into jewelry for his wife. (Source)

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[giradman]

Andō Hiroshige - The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō

This was the other exhibit, i.e. Hiroshige Japanese woodcut prints from the early part of the 19th century based on the 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, which was the main eastern road from Kyoto (the imperial capital then) to the the Shōgun's capital, Edo (now Tokyo) (quotes below about Hiroshige and also the print series); pics of 8 of the stations (stops along the road) - the prints shown are from the second quote and are oriented horizontally - the ones we saw were vertical, but likely just another edition, as stated below (he created 30 different series). Many European artists were greatly influenced by Japanese woodcuts, including Vincent van Gogh; also, Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect, was a collector of the prints of this Japanese artist.

Interestingly, Dr. Isabel Bettinger, who was an orthopedic surgeon in our home town of Winston-Salem, donated this collection to the Cameron Art museum - the prints were bound in an album that was originally given to one of her ancestors who was on the Commodore Perry voyage to Japan in the early 1850s - see the first pic below (second paragraph description). All of the stations can be view by going to the second link. Dave

Utagawa Hiroshige, also Andō Hiroshige (1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format landscape series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and for his vertical-format landscape series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. The subjects of his work were atypical of the ukiyo-e genre, whose typical focus was on beautiful women, popular actors, and other scenes of the urban pleasure districts of Japan's Edo period (1603–1868). The popular series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai was a strong influence on Hiroshige's choice of subject, though Hiroshige's approach was more poetic and ambient than Hokusai's bolder, more formal prints. Subtle use of color was essential in Hiroshige's prints, often printed with multiple impressions in the same area and with extensive use of bokashi (color gradation), both of which were rather labor-intensive techniques. (Source)

The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō, in the Hōeidō edition (1833–1834), is a series of ukiyo-e woodcut prints created by Utagawa Hiroshige after his first travel along the Tōkaidō in 1832. The Tōkaidō road, linking the shōgun's capital, Edo, to the imperial one, Kyōto, was the main travel and transport artery of old Japan. It is also the most important of the "Five Roads" (Gokaidō)—the five major roads of Japan created or developed during the Edo period to further strengthen the control of the central shogunate. Even though the Hōeidō edition is by far the best known, The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō was such a popular subject that it led Hiroshige to create some 30 different series of woodcut prints on it, all very different one from the other by their size, their designs or even their number. (Source)

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[giradman]

Last Day - Fitness Center - Shopping & Movie - Dinners

Our last day, we were at the fitness center late morning - Susan on the reclining bike and I on the treadmill plus some light hand weights - although small the machines are relatively new and work well, PLUS the views from the large glass window are spectacular (see first 3 pics below - Susan on the bike). Plan to do a little shopping at a LARGE nearby mall and may take in a movie (Green Book).

For those who may be visiting the Wilmington area and would like some restaurant suggestions near Wrightsville Beach - on Tuesday night, we ate at Brassiere du Soliel, an annual favorite - shared a dozen oysters (Texas and Hatteras Island, Outer Banks); I had the flounder and Susan the Crêpe (believe her third time) (see first quote for details). On Wednesday night, we tried for the second time the Port City Chop House; Susan started w/ oysters (Gulf Coast) and I with tuna sashimi; she had a delicious Australian set of lamb chops and I the seafood sampler with oysters on the half shelf, of course (again details in second quote). On our last night, we plan to return to the Boca Bay Restaurant. Tomorrow, Friday, back home; although chilly the weather has been beautiful and the ocean re-invigorating. Dave

Brassiere du Soliel - Tuesday Night

Market Variety Oysters
Big Toe from Texas
Hatteras from Outer Banks NC

Sautéed Flounder
Haricots Verts, Boulangère Potato, Brown Butter, Capers, Lemon

Crab and Shrimp Crêpe
Crabmeat, Roasted Tomato, Shallot, Lobster Sauce, Mornay

Port City Chop House - Wednesday Night
Sashimi Tuna
Drizzled with sesame ginger vinaigrette and accompanied by soy, ginger, wasabi and seaweed salad
Seafood Sampler
A platter of four colossal shrimp, six oysters on the half shell and jumbo lump crabmeat served with cocktail sauce, honey aioli and drawn butter

Chilled Gulf Oysters
On the half shell
Australian Lamb Chop
Three double cut chops simply grilled and glazed with garlic butter

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[giradman]

Our Departure Day for Home - Up Early for Sunrise Over the Ocean - Beautiful!